Come and discover the rich Mangyan culture and heritage and learn to write your name in the Mangyan script in a lecture to be conducted at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center’s Seminar Room on October 14, 2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.

The seminar will be led Emily Catapang, a Mangyan culture expert and executive director of the Mangyan Heritage Center. Catapang will be joined by Ponyong Kadlos, a traditional Mangyan poet and coordinator of the Kapulungan Para sa Lupaing Ninuno (KPLN).

The Mangyan Heritage Center is a not-for-profit, non-government organization promoting the Mangyan culture with various projects. On the other hand, the KPLN is a federation of Mangyan Peoples Organizations in Oriental Mindoro that promotes and protects the Mangyan rights to their ancestral domain. Also KPLN implements programs in education, livelihood, heath, conflict resolution and capability building.

Mangyan is the collective name for the eight indigenous peoples (IP) groups living in Mindoro island. Estimated to be 10% of the total population of Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, these over 100,000 Mangyans, have eight different languages and cultural traditions.

Out of the 110 IP groups in the Philippines today, the Hanunoo and Buhid Mangyans are two out of only three IPs in the Philippines who have retained their original syllabary. The Buhid and Hanunoo Mangyan syllabic writing systems have been declared as National Cultural Treasures in 1997 and inscribed in UNESCO 's Memory of the Word Registers in 1999.

The Mangyans possess a rich and distinctive cultural and literary heritage. They use various traditional musical instruments during festivities, special occasions and courting: guitar, violin, flute, gong, and Jew's harp. Using a pointed knife, Hanunoo Mangyans inscribe poems on bamboo trees in the forests or on bamboo slats. These Ambahans express in an allegorical way, through the use of poetic language, certain situations or characteristics referred to by the one reciting the poem.

The Hanunoo and Buhid Mangyans weave and embroider their own traditional attire. The Iraya and Alangan Mangyans are skilled in weaving forest vines and rattan into elaborate baskets. All the Mangyans love to wear accessories made of beads. One of their sources of livelihood is their handicrafts made of forest vines, beads and cotton.

The seminar is sponsored by the Embassy of the Philippines, Korea Foundation Cultural Center, The Ala-Ala Foundation, Mangyan Heritage Center and Pinoy Art Collective.